greg it is so entertaining to see how using big words makes you feel liek somebody. I guess all who believe in GOD are the dumb ones and your the smart one. Got it. WOW you need to get back to reality. I cant believe you actuallly believe what your saying.

Just to be clear, I don't use big words to feel "liek" somebody, I use words that have a specific meaning. Given your grammar and language skills (at least as reflected on the forum), I can imagine you may feel put-upon, but that certainly wasn't my intention. (And please let me know what the big words were: was it "restriction" or "tolerance" or "berating"... oh, I'll bet it was "aphorism". In any event those are all basic English words...but again, given your grammar skills...)

My whole point was, can't you remember the time when you didn't believe in God? At that time in your life, if someone had responded by lambasting you the way you took after people in this thread, would your reaction have been, "Hey, maybe this guy has something" or would it have been much the reaction you've received? Is your conduct here helping the cause of Christ or simply adding fuel to the fire of those who consider believers to be nothing more than stupid, intolerant and misguided fanatics? I'm sure after you posted your initial response you sat back (perhaps smugly) and thought, "boy, I sure told them". And I'd agree with you, you did. But all you told them was "hey, I think I know it all and -- by the way -- I also know what's best for you." Even assuming that were to be true, why would they have any interest in hearing from you with your attitude?

There's an old saying: People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

That said, I'm not sure how much you know, but it sure looks like you don't care.

To answer the question, I was around 4 or 5. My best friend got out of trouble for putting a hair pin into a light socket by saying, "the devil made me do it." He seemed like a normal kid. He played around like a normal kid. He was my best friend. We were even blood brothers. But I knew that his story was total horseshit. And the more I learned about religion, the more convinced I was that it was all more of the same.

To answer the question, I was around 4 or 5. My best friend got out of trouble for putting a hair pin into a light socket by saying, "the devil made me do it." He seemed like a normal kid. He played around like a normal kid. He was my best friend. We were even blood brothers. But I knew that his story was total horseshit. And the more I learned about religion, the more convinced I was that it was all more of the same.

I did stick a metal rod in an electric socket when I was a kid. The other end was in my mouth

How old before I thought there was no God? Hard to say. I never really took it too seriously when I was going to church every week as a kid. To me it was just a social function (Methodist) and the word seemed good for general society and a nice, easy moral path. The older I have gotten I tend to focus on the negative aspects of religion. The "we are better than everyone else crapola."